About Zodius

Zodius invests in high growth and market-defining India-centric businesses targeting the Enterprise Software & Services, Big Data & Analytics and Consumer Mobile/Internet markets. The strong advisory team based in Mumbai adds significant domain expertise, operational experience and global networks to the portfolio companies in order to support their plans to become high valued market leaders in Indian as well as global markets.

Benefiting from Zodius’ experience in strategy, M&A, finance, sales & marketing and building high performance organizations, the entrepreneurs are able to connect their vision-to- execution dots faster and develop their businesses more effectively.

"We partner with high-performing entrepreneurs who outperform their competition using market-moving ideas."

MEET THE TEAM

Neeraj Bhargava

Senior Managing Director and Founder

Neeraj Bhargava

Senior Managing Director and Founder

Neeraj is the founder of Zodius and is the Managing Partner for Zodius Funds I & II. For subsequent Zodius funds, Neeraj will serve as the Chairman of the IC and help set the strategic direction for Zodius. At Zodius, Neeraj has led investments in Allygrow, Antuit, Big Basket, BORN Group, Culture Machine, Enki Holdings, MedGenome, Markets & Markets and ZyFin. In most of these companies, he is an active Board member and is also the Chairman of Antuit and Born Group.

Prior to forming Zodius, Neeraj has had a successful career as an entrepreneur, investor and consultant including being the:

Co-founder and Group CEO of WNS Global Services, a leading NYSE – listed outsourcing company, which Neeraj grew to a 22,000 person global company with over $1 Billion in market capitalization.

Co-Founder and Managing Partner of eVentures India, a $150 Million venture capital firm which led investments in successful Internet and Business Services companies including Make My Trip (IPO at Nasdaq), customerasset (sold to ICICI and listed later as First Source), Mentorix (sold to Lion Bridge, Inc.) and Net Magic (sold to NTT, Japan).

Partner of McKinsey & Company, where he worked at New York, London and Mumbai, and led practices and client relationships in the technology sector.

Neeraj has a BA in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, India

Shilpa Kulkarni

Managing Director and Co-Founder

Shilpa Kulkarni

Managing Director and Co-Founder

Shilpa has been the co-founder and Managing Director of Zodius Funds I & II. Shilpa sits on the Board of Zivame, Freshmenu and Allygrow Technologies. She has also served as the CFO of the Fund. Shilpa has been part of the founding team at WNS and has played senior management roles at the Company. Prior to WNS she was a venture investor at eVentures India where her investments included Mentorix (sold to Lionbridge), Intigma (sold to Emptoris). Shilpa began her career as an Investment Banker with JP Morgan Chase in New York.

Shilpa holds an MBA from Fuqua School of Management, Duke University and Bachelors degree in Engineering from Mumbai University.

Varun Laul

Managing Director

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Varun Laul

Managing Director

Varun Laul is a Managing Director at Zodius Capital. Prior to Zodius, he was a Director with Providence Equity in India. At Providence, he was part of the founding team for the India business and was integral to the firm's investments in Media and Telecom in India, most notably, Idea Cellular, UFO Moviez and Hathway Cable. In his last role at Providence, he was responsible for the entire India portfolio and led the merger of ShopCJ with HomeShop18 and Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel (announced) on behalf of the firm. Before joining Providence, Varun was an investment banker with DSP Merrill Lynch and advised clients in Consumer, Media, Telecoms and Industrial sectors. Varun has also been a management consultant with A.T. Kearney. He started his career in consumer marketing and sales in Unilever's India operations (HLL) in the home and personal care business.

He currently serves on the Boards of UFO Moviez and Hathway Digital Private Limited.

Varun completed the post graduate program in management at ISB, Hyderabad and received a B.Tech (Hons.) from IIT, Kharagpur.

Gautam Patel

Managing Director

Gautam Patel

Managing Director

Gautam is a Managing Director of Zodius Technology Fund and Zodius Technology Opportunities Fund. He invests in early-growth stage businesses in the Technology, Digital and Services Sectors. Prior to co-founding the Zodius Funds he was the Managing Director and head of Battery Ventures in India. He is currently on the Board of Pepperfry, OFBusiness and a Board Observer at MedGenome.

Prior to that, he played senior executive and venture investment roles at iGate, Mphasis, eVentures India and IndOcean Chase Capital. Gautam was also the founder of 3Genesis, a mobile technology services provider that got acquired by Apar Infotech.

Gautam began his career in financial services (Investment Banking and M&A) in the U.S., working in New York and Chicago for investment banks Lazard Freres and Smith Barney.